My apologies to 2nd period as my camera ran out of battery power. This was especially tragic because of the amazing performances put on by our Hamlet group (Ami, Cecilia, Jane, Nancy,  and Roy); our Macbeth group (Sam, Diep-Anh, Runa and Joanne) and our Midsummer Night’s Dream group (Leo, Gina, Ellena and who can forget our very own moonshine, Conno).

Below are just a few snippets that actually turned out on my camera phone from period 3. Enjoy!

First: Gertrude wipes the sweat off of Hamlet’s brow just moments before drinking the poisoned cup.

Second: Hamlet and Laertes fight; notice the green poisoned sword

Third: Macduff triumphant with Macbeth’s head conveniently attached to the tennis racket.

Four: Macbeth’s head

Fifth: Malcolm is officially king!

Sixth: Othello smothers his wife, Desdemona

Seventh: Othello stabs Iago

Midsummer Night’s Dream–Act II, Scene 2

Macbeth–Act II, Scene 2

Hamlet–Act II, Scene 2

Othello–Act II, Scene 2

These are the scene assignments for our first performance day on Tuesday, April 21. Make sure you also have something to add to the theme poster. Start thinking about which character you might want to portray. 

Midsummer Night’s Dream–Scene 1

Macbeth–Scene 3

Hamlet–Scene 5

Othello–Scene 3

In grammar we are starting a unit on Gerunds and Infinitives. For today, I would like you to practice putting common verbs and phrases with their specific prepositions and also practicing putting gerunds with these verb/preposition combinations. 

Remember even though these are “games”, you want to do your best to practice correctly. 

1. Click on the correct link below:

Period 2

Period 3

2. Log in using your username (firstnamelastname766) and password (766).

3. Start with Gerunds–>Matching and finish with Cloze activity. 

Here are some helpful links for research:

Overview with many World War II annotated timeline

Eyewitness reports from WWII

Interactives and information on WWII from BBC

Britannica Encyclopedia

History Channel site with many interactives

Site with hundreds of links to other sites on World War II topics

United Nations Declaration on the Four Freedoms

To help prepare you for this discussion, think about your answers to these questions:

Essential Questions for Four Freedoms

1. What are the Four Freedoms?
2. What audience was FDR speaking to during his speech? What was his purpose for speaking?
3. Were the Four Freedoms realized completely in America? In the world?
4. What underlying assumptions does FDR have regarding governments? People?
5. Can the Four Freedoms be fully realized in the US? In the World? Why/why not?

If the Congress maintains these principles the voters, putting patriotism ahead pocketbooks, will give you their applause.

In the future days, which we seek to make secure, we look forward to a world founded upon four essential human freedoms.

The first is freedom of speech and expression — everywhere in the world.

The second is freedom of every person to worship God in his own way — everywhere in the world.

The third is freedom from want, which, translated into world terms, means economic understandings which will secure to every nation a healthy peacetime life for its inhabitants — everywhere in the world.

The fourth is freedom from fear, which, translated into world terms, means a world-wide reduction of armaments to such a point and in such a thorough fashion that no nation will be in a position to commit an act of physical aggression against any neighbor — anywhere in the world.

That is no vision of a distant millennium. It is a definite basis for a kind of world attainable in our own time and generation. That kind of world is the very antithesis of the so-called “new order” of tyranny which the dictators seek to create with the crash of a bomb.

To that new order we oppose the greater conception — the moral order. A good society is able to face schemes of world domination and foreign revolutions alike without fear.

Since the beginning of our American history we have been engaged in change, in a perpetual, peaceful revolution, a revolution which goes on steadily, quietly, adjusting itself to changing conditions without the concentration camp or the quicklime in the ditch. The world order which we seek is the cooperation of free countries, working together in a friendly, civilized society.

This nation has placed its destiny in the hands and heads and hearts of its millions of free men and women, and its faith in freedom under the guidance of God. Freedom means the supremacy of human rights everywhere. Our support goes to those who struggle to gain those rights and keep them. Our strength is our unity of purpose.

To that high concept there can be no end save victory.

The nation takes great satisfaction and much strength from the things which have been done to make its people conscious of their individual stake in the preservation of democratic life in America.  Those things have toughened the fiber of our people, have renewed their faith and strengthened their devotion to the institutions we make ready to protect.

Certainly this is no time for any of us to stop thinking about the social and economic problems which are the root cause of the social revolution which is today a supreme factor in the world. For there is nothing mysterious about the foundations of a healthy and strong democracy.

The basic things expected by our people of their political and economic systems are simple. They are:

Equality of opportunity for youth and for others.

Jobs for those who can work.

Security for those who need it.

The ending of special privilege for the few.

The preservation of civil liberties for all.

The enjoyment — The enjoyment of the fruits of scientific progress in a wider and constantly rising standard of living.

These are the simple, the basic things that must never be lost sight of in the turmoil and unbelievable complexity of our modern world. The inner and abiding strength of our economic and political systems is dependent upon the degree to which they fulfill these expectations.

Many subjects connected with our social economy call for immediate improvement. As examples:

We should bring more citizens under the coverage of old-age pensions and unemployment insurance.

We should widen the opportunities for adequate medical care.

We should plan a better system by which persons deserving or needing gainful employment may obtain it.

I have called for personal sacrifice, and I am assured of the willingness of almost all Americans to respond to that call. A part of the sacrifice means the payment of more money in taxes. In my budget message I will recommend that a greater portion of this great defense program be paid for from taxation than we are paying for today. No person should try, or be allowed to get rich out of the program, and the principle of tax payments in accordance with ability to pay should be constantly before our eyes to guide our legislation.